MS ''Berge Istra'' was a ship owned by

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...

company Sig.ö Bergesen d.y. and registered in

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

, an

ore-bulk-oil carrier An ore-bulk-oil carrier, also known as combination carrier or OBO, is a ship designed to be capable of carrying wet or dry cargoes. The idea is to reduce the number of empty (ballast) voyages, in which large ships only carry a cargo one way and re ...

with . She was carrying ore from Brazil to Japan, and returning with crude oil from the Persian Gulf to Europe or America. The ship had build number 296 at the

Uljanik Uljanik was a shipbuilding company in Pula, Croatia. History Uljanik was founded in 1856, in the carefully selected bay of Pula (then known as Pola) as a shipyard of the Austro-Venetian Navy (from 1867 to 1918 Austro-Hungarian Navy). The foun ...

shipyard in the port city

Pula Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

in then

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

(today

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

) where it was built in 1972. The ship was en route from

Tubarão Tubarão (lit. "shark") is a Brazilian Municipalities of Brazil, municipality located in southern part of Santa Catarina (state), Santa Catarina state. The population, according to the IBGE/2020 estimate was 106,422. It is the main city of the ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

with

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

when contact was lost with the vessel in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

(near the island of

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

), the last contact was on December 30, 1975. After one week, on January 7, 1976, the ship was reported missing, but the ensuing search operation yielded no results and was called off on January 16 of that year. Thirty people lost their lives. Two days later, on January 18,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

citizens Imeldo Barreto León (41) and Epifanio López (39), were picked up by Japanese fishermen, having survived 20 days on a

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrel ...

. López and León recounted that they had been painting the ship's bow when it had been shaken by a series of explosions and had gone down in a matter of a few seconds. After struggling to escape the sinking ship's suction, León had managed to climb onto the raft, which had floated free of the ship, and had hauled aboard the unconscious López. MS ''Berge Istra'' was like its sister ship which disappeared under similar circumstances four years later. Even 30 years later, the shipping company maintained secrecy with regards to the cause of the accidents. During an interview in Norwegian newspaper ''Dagbladet'' in January 2011, the retired Bergesen captain Johnny Eilers gave his view on what happened: The inert (neutral gas) systems were often unreliable those days, and many officers lacked education in how to measure gas levels. ''Berge Istra'' was loaded with ore in the main holds. But the wingtanks were not cleaned after the previous cargo of oil, thus producing oil vapor. Also the deck water seal was unreliable in heavy seas, allowing this vapor to enter the inert gas system and generator. That generator would be started on their way east, as Japan demanded inerted wingtanks on arrival. Starting the generator would then cause the “whole deck to open up”, just as the two survivors had explained it did. Thus the ''Berge Istra'' and ''Berge Vanga'' disasters.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berge Istra 1972 ships Maritime incidents in 1975 Merchant ships of Norway Ore-bulk-oil carriers Ships built in Yugoslavia Ships sunk by non-combat internal explosions Shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Shipwrecks of the Philippines